Statistical properties of nucleotide clusters in DNA sequences
- Author:
Jun CHENG
1
;
Lin-Xi ZHANG
Author Information
1. Jinhua University
- Keywords:
DNA sequence;
Plasmodium falciparum 3D7;
Nucleotide clusters;
Power law
- From:
Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B
2005;6B(5):408-412
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Using the complete genome of Plasmodiumfalciparum 3D7 which has 14 chromosomes as an example, we have examined the distribution functions for the amount of C or G and A or T consecutively and non-overlapping blocks of m bases in this system. The function P(S) about the number of the consecutive C-G or A-T content cluster conforms to the relation P(S)oce-as;values of the scaling exponent αCG are much larger than αAT; and αAT of 14 chromosomes are hardly changed, whereas αCG of 14chromosomes have a number of fluctuations. We found maximum value of A-T cluster size is much larger than C-G, which implies the existence of large A-T cluster. Our study of the width function ξ(m) of cluster C-G content showed that follows good power law ξ(m)ocm-γ. The average γ for 14 chromosomes is 0.931. These investigations provide some insight into the nucleotide clusters of DNA sequences, and help us understand other properties of DNA sequences.
